New survey favors Megawati in presidential election
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 06/22/2009 10:32 PM
Megawati Soekarnoputri of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) could beat incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) in the July 8 presidential election, according to a recent survey by the Indonesian Development Monitoring (IDM) Institute.
The survey, which was taken between June 1 and June 16 with a sample size of 2,047 respondents, revealed that Megawati and her running mate, Prabowo Subianto of the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra), might win the first round of the election by gaining around 44.3 percent of the votes.
SBY of the Democratic Party and his running mate, Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, will finish second with 30.43 percent, while Golkar Party’s Jusuf Kalla and his running mate, Wiranto of the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), would be in last place with 13.2 percent.
“Our institution is fully independent, so I can guarantee that there is no political influencing of the survey results,” IDM executive director Dwi Mardianto told a press conference at Le Meridien Hotel, Central Jakarta, on Monday.
A political expert and the director of the Research Institute for Democracy and a Prosperous State (Pedoman), Fadjroel Rachman, told the conference that he fully respected IDM’s independence and its willingness to reveal the list of questions, unlike other survey institutions.
“However, we should take note that IDM’s questions do have the tendency to guide the respondents to a certain candidate, Megawati,” he said.(hdt)
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